Plans for 12,000 new homes around Chichester to be discussed

Plans for more than 12,000 new homes around Chichester are being recommended for approval.

Leading councillors are meeting to discuss the next steps of the city's Local Plan Review

The council’s Cabinet will hold a special meeting on Wednesday 14 November and will be recommended to approve the next steps of the review to Full Council.

The draft plan sets out provision for a total of 12,350 dwellings over the plan period, which equates to 650 per year. A number of key sites and housing numbers have been identified as follows:

East of Chichester: minimum 600 dwellings.

Southern Gateway: minimum 350 dwellings.

Land south west of Chichester: minimum of 100 dwellings and employment development.

Land at Highgrove Farm, Bosham: minimum of 250 dwellings.

Land at North Park Farm, Selsey: minimum of 250 dwellings.

Land west of Tangmere: minimum of 1,300 dwellings (an additional 300 dwellings above the allocation in the adopted local plan).

A minimum of 2,500 homes would be provided on strategic sites through Neighbourhood Plans:

Chidham and Hambrook parish: minimum of 500 dwellings.

East Wittering Parish: minimum of 350 dwellings.

Fishbourne Parish: minimum of 250 dwellings.

Hunston Parish: minimum of 200 dwellings.

Southbourne Parish: minimum of 1,250 dwellings.

If the recommendation is approved by Cabinet, then Full Council will make the final decision at its meeting on 20 November. If Full Council agrees, the consultation would take place over eight weeks, starting 13 December and ending on 7 February – an extended time to take account of the Christmas and New Year period.

The Local Plan Review would cover 15 years, until 2035.

The plan also sets out a number of smaller parish housing requirements where there is no strategic allocation. It is anticipated that the land will be identified in neighbourhood plans for those parishes.

“Our current Local Plan was approved by a Government planning inspector in 2015, on the basis that we agreed to review it again within five years.

“This was because the inspector felt that we would need to accommodate more housing in the long term. Since then, the Government has changed the way it calculates future housing needs and we are now expected to take more housing within our area.”

Councillor Susan Taylor, Cabinet Member for Planning at Chichester District Council

This special Cabinet meeting will start at 3pm and will take place in the Committee Rooms at East Pallant House. An online audio recording of the meeting will be available afterwards on the council’s website.